A cold, round metal object.
Unfolding it, it turned out to be an Imperial medal.
Noticing Lord Rond, he pretended not to see and looked at the distant mountains.
Shifting my gaze, Duke Kaidel was smugly smiling over my shoulder.
Avoiding my surprised look, he gracefully turned to Prince Grehn.
The Emperor’s steward called Prince Grehn and the Imperial medal recipient, and both stepped forward to His Majesty.
I was in a panic. My lips unconsciously quivered.
‘Has that man gone mad? Giving me his medal? He’s going to stand in front of His Majesty without a medal?’
I hoped that Duke Kaidel would turn around just once, so I could throw the medal back at him.
But he simply walked away, parallel to Prince Grehn, in his splendid attire.
“Ha!”
Turning my head, Princess Milliora was glaring at me, seeing what I had held in my hand.
Where did you get that medal?
‘I’m really losing it!’
Duke Kaidel was already standing in front of His Majesty.
Finally accepting the situation, I thought with a troubled heart,
‘I won’t forget your magnificent sacrifice, you lunatic.’
In front of Princess Milliora, I pinned the medal to my chest.
‘A crazy woman.’
It was the first time I had cursed Princess Milliora.
The Emperor’s voice was heard.
“Why hasn’t Duke Kaidel adorned his medal?”
Then Prince Grehn glanced at Duke Kaidel and answered,
“His attire bears only the insignia personally bestowed by Your Majesty.”
“Very well. Whether or not Duke Rocard Kaidel has a medal, his loyalty to Grehn remains unchanged. They are connected by life.”
Duke Kaidel respectfully bowed his head, and the Emperor gave them a blessing for divine favor in the competition.
Next, it was Princess Milliora’s and my turn.
Princess Milliora twisted her body and went ahead to His Majesty; I clutched the hem of my dress and hurriedly followed.
The Emperor’s gaze moved from Milliora to me. I lowered my eyes under his longstanding stare and held my breath.
“Do your best in the competition. I wish you divine favor.”
And then the princesses, princes, and stewards stood in front of His Majesty one by one. Now it was time for the competition announcement.
The Emperor’s steward unfurled a scroll and loudly proclaimed,
“The competition for the great Tagar Empire’s princes and princesses will begin. The first task: ‘Prepare a birthday gift that will most please His Majesty.'”
After Emperor and Empress left, the princes and princesses exited the council hall in order.
Left alone in the hall, Princess Milliora glared at the medal on my chest and stormed off, seemingly angry.
‘That’s just…’
Even the Emperor swears when he’s not in sight; what’s a princess to him?
Thinking that discrediting me in front of His Majesty would have no downside for her, my head ached unbearably.
Watching Lord Rond follow the princess, I trailed behind, grumbling.
I returned to my room and huddled on the bed, groaning. As I relaxed, my whole body felt tight.
Lying down, the steward’s medal pinned to my chest seemed to grow heavier, as if it were pressing down on my heart.
“What the hell is this…”
As awful as Princess Milliora was, Duke Kaidel’s actions seemed incomprehensible.
The face of him turning his eyes and smiling behind Lord Rond wouldn’t leave my mind.
Even Prince Grehn seemed unaware of Duke Kaidel’s actions; what would have happened if he couldn’t make an excuse so quickly?
While it’s my lot to be in trouble, I couldn’t tolerate it affecting others.
“Anyway, I don’t like this!”
I sat up roughly and winced at the pain, then cautiously took the medal off and put it in the drawer.
I have no such ambitions. Neither does Miliora Her Highness.
Her desire is likely limited to a pleasant tea party or dealing with the Empress Her Highness with a straight back.
My role is simply to help her safely conduct this competition.
I thought I could do that much with my full strength, but now I was in a position where I was receiving even the medal of Duke Kaidel without being recognized as a lady-in-waiting.
Opinions on whether a bastard should have something like this varied from person to person.
The Earl certainly believed it was possible, and the Princess considered it a terrible insult.
I couldn’t know who was right.
I just knew that I needed this to achieve my dream.
But holding someone else’s medal made my feelings a mess.
I have to return this to Duke Kaidel, but I couldn’t muster the courage to go to him.
I was both embarrassed and grateful, and at the same time suspicious of what he was thinking.
I wondered if it was a bribe to keep the health secrets of Her Highness Grehyan, but he didn’t need to do that.
Bribes are given to those stronger than oneself.
Even if he owed me, I didn’t see how I could be of help to him in the future.
Occasionally, I sensed a mix of interest and doubt in the way he looked at me.
Sometimes, his skeptical gaze reminded me of an eagle circling over my head.
Perhaps to the firstborn son of a lion, I, a bastard recognized by another lion, was a strange existence.
Male lead is a Divorced Husband
She said to him: “Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change it!”
Liu Changning transmigrated into a female cannon fodder character in a female-dominant novel.
After reading the first half of the novel’s plot, the first thing she did upon transmigration was to divorce the Pan Jinlian-style male protagonist she had just married.
She indulged herself, pretending to be ugly and poor.
But as time passed, the way that man looked at her became more and more unusual…
Liu Changning was dumbfounded: Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!
――
This lifetime, Pei Yuanshao was rejected by the same woman twice!
The first time, she drove him away. Forced by the situation, he endured the waves of anger in his heart, yielding and humbling himself.
That person lay slanted on a rocking chair, her sallow face emotionless: “If you don’t want a divorce, go cook!”
Pei Yuanshao’s face was dark and gloomy: “You!”
The second time, after the crisis in Jinling City was resolved, the new emperor sent someone to pick him up. He turned around, stammering: “I… I have to go. If you keep me…”
That person lay on the kang bed, her back to him, as if she had long anticipated this day, crisp and clear: “Goodbye!”
Pei Yuanshao was so angry his fingers trembled: “You… you!”
The mission of family and country made him restrain himself, averting his eyes and turning to leave this broken household.
Two years later, they met again. Seeing her ethereal face, his body shook like a sieve.
“She was originally a ‘she’!”
At the Qionglin Banquet, the top scholar of the imperial examination, a talented person with exceptional speech and conduct, all the unmarried young gentlemen from aristocratic families looked at her with shy and timid eyes.
The peerless imperial official Pei Yuanshao felt the anger in his heart erupt. He pointed at the woman surrounded by the crowd at the Qionglin Banquet, his thin lips slightly curled: “Little sister, I wants that person to be the wife-master of my Mingde Prince Manor.”
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